Means for mounting and driving centrifugal machines.



E. W. PHILLIPS.

MEANS FOR MOUNTING AND DRIVING CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES. APPLICATION man JULY 17, 1912.

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| Z 63 L go 0 L (2, a T5 I E. W. PHILLIPS. MEANS FOR MOUNTING AND DRIVING CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES,

APPLICATION FILED JULY 17, I912.

Patented Oct. 9,1917.

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. mar W. PHIIJLES, 0F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGIN'OR T0 AMERICAN TOOL &

MACHINE COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSA- GH'USET'ES.

intense.

I '0 all whom it may concern:

' Be it'known that I, ELI W. PHIL Irs, citizen of the United States, and resident of Boston, Massachusetts, county of Suffolk, have invented certain new and useful .Imrovements in Means for Mounting and riving Centrifugal Machines, of which the following is a specification. v This invention relates to centrifugal machines of the suspended type and is intended to provide simple and eflective means for mounting and driving said machines with the minimum amount of vibration and disturbance, while providing a construction and arrangement of bearings for the rotary shaft which can be easily and eflici'ently lubricated without lubricating the oscillatory bearing on which the machine is suspended. The present construction and arrangement is particularly designed for a direct connected motor drive, and one of the features of the invention consists in so constructing and arranging the parts as to make possible the convenient and rapid dismounting of the machine or disconnecting of the motor for repairs without the necessit of a complete dismemberment or disassem ling, that is to say the basket may be removed without disturbing the motor shaft or vice versa, and access may be afiorded to the rotary bearings without dismounting the machine or removing the motor.

A further feature of the invention resides in the means whereby there is secured perfect alinement between the motor shaft, the basket shaft and the bearing sleeve, by which it is possible to always assemble the f machine with the parts in exactly the relationship that they should sustain to one another. This and other features of the invention will be particularly described hereinafter and pointed out in the annexed claims.

In the accompanyin drawings is illustrated the preferred em odiment of this invention, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in cen-, tral section showing the relationship of the,

driving motor connected shaft and other parts of the machine; r

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail elevation of the bearing elements;

Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and

Specification of Letters Patent.

' MEANS FOR MOUNTING AND DRIVING CENTBIFUGAL MACHINES.

Fig. sis a detail plan view of one of the coupling elements.

The socketed hanger a is shown firmly bolted to a fixed annular hanger or spacing piece on whose upper flanged face is accurately machined to form a circular seat m to receive the base of the motor frame, whose lower periphery is similarly machined to make a perfect fit at m with the spacing piece or upper section m of the hanger. For

Patented Oct. 9, tuft. Application filed July 17, 1912. Seriai No; 710.087.

the same reason the top flanged face of the lower hanger section a is formed with an annular channel or groove forming a seat for the base or lower end of the'hanger section we, so that these two parts fit accurately together. The opposed flanges of parts a and m are bolted securely together, and if the parts-are properly machined the middle shaft and the basket shaft must perfectly aline with each other and be coaxial with the bearing sleeve 6. This is an important feature of construction, since I have discovered much of the difficulty encountered in the flexible coupling motor drive has been due to a slight difl'erence in the alinement of the two shafts, and as these types of machines have been heretofore constructed, it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to insure. perfect alinement between the motor shaft and the basket shaft.

In practice it is preferred to split the downward extension of the ball sleeve 5 as shown at 6 and insert therein a tubular bearing 5 which is held in place by clamping bolts 6*, which upon being tightened serve to contract the split sleeve tightly upon said bearing sleeve. The bearing cap or head 0 screws upon the threaded nipple 0 formed at the upper end of the basket shaft 0 and is held against turning by means of a check bolt 0 tapped into the upper end of the shaft. This head has also a removable annular centering ring 0 surrounding and forming a means for accurately centering the flexible coupling members 0 On the fixed supports above the bearing sleeve and the basket shaft is mounted an electric motor the lower end of whose shaft 0 projects downward in alinement with the basket shaft. An intermediate connecting or extension shaft c is rigidly but detachably secured to the lower end of said motor shaft 0 by means of a split coupling head 0 which is drawn tightly on the motor shaft by fas-' tening bolts, and which terminates at its lower end in' a flange c which is secured to a corresponding flange of the extension shaft 0. This connecting shaft 0 extends downward, so that its lower end provided with coupling teeth 0 interlocks with corresponding coupling teeth on the upper end of the oscillatory basket shaft 0 at substantially the level of the center of oscillation of the sleeve. The thrust bearing is also preferably' located as closely as practicable to this center of oscillation. The result is a minimum amount of strain on both the coupling and the bearing, and the avoidance ,of any lateral strain on the coupling.

Below the end of the bearing sleeve there is secured to the basket shaft the rotary hollow oil cup d, provided at its upper end with a hollow flange or rim of larger diameter than its body portion, so that the centrifugal action tends to throw the oil into this enlarged rim d. Within this rim is located an oil conducting pipe whose open end projects in a direction opposite to the rotation of the oil cup, so that the oil is forced up through the oil pipe 03 to the oil reservoir (1 hence it is delivered by the drip-pipe 03 mounted in the upper portion of the sleeve 6 directly upon the flexible coupling or joint, and also upon the thrust bearing. rom the thrust bearing the oil flows downward through the vertical groove 0- to the bottom of the oil cup. It will be observed that the top of the oil cup is below the ball-bearing part of the sleeve, so that the lubrication of the spherical bearing is avoided, while at the'same time a perfect lubrication of the flexible coupling, the thrust bearing and the lateral bearing is obtained. To prevent the undue accumulation of oil above the coupling, I provide an overflow oil duct 0 in the middle portion of the sleeve, which serves to lead the oil back into the oil cup.

The spiral groove 0 forms a lubricating duct for maintaining perfect lubrication around that portion of the shaft forming a lateral bearing and lying within the bushing 6 A brake member 0 is also rigidly secured to the suspended shaft 0, and is extended upward so as to have its cylindrical brake surface surround the spherical bearlng of the sleeve, the thrust bearing of the shaft and the flexible shaft coupling, so as I oil cup f to reduce to a minimum the strain upon these elements caused by the action of the brake. A clean-out hole for removing sediment from the oil cup is shown at a, the same being normally plugged by a removable screw plug. The motor shaft immediately below the motor is provided with an from which leads an oil-conducting plpe P which conveys the oil tothe reservo1r i by which the bearing of the motor is lubricated.

Latest? tion of the shaft or the thrust bearing. To

remove the basket shaft entirely, its lower section is disconnected at 0 the top cap 0 is then unscrewed and the shaft 0 can be dropped through the lower end of the sleeve for removal. As there is usually very scant headroom where these machines are mounted, the sectional arrangement of the shaft.

makes it very easy to disassemble and reassemble, to a limited extent or completely, without inconvenience. The use of the intermediate connecting shaft 0' makes it practicable to locate the flexible joint or coupling at the plane at the center of oscillation, so

as to avoid lateral strain, otherwise 'occasioned by the oscillation of the basket shaft.

What I claim is: 1. The combination .of a fixed socketed hanger or support, an oscillatory bearing sleeve having a spherical bearing ball intermediate of its upper and lower ends seated in said hanger, thrust bearing carried in said sleeve, a rotary basket-carrying shaft suspended therefrom so as to oscillate with said sleeve, an overhead non-oscillatory motor shaft and coupling members flexibly connecting the upper end of said basket shaft with the downward extension of said motor shaft at substantially the plane of the center of oscillation of said sleeve, and a centralizing buffer surrounding the upper end of said sleeve and opposing a yielding resistance to its oscillation, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a socketed hanger,

a ball sleeve seated to oscillate therein, a thrust bearing in said sleeve, a basket-carrying shaft suspended therefrom, an overhead non-oscillatory motor shaft coaxial with said basket shaft, a flexible coupling whose mem-' bracing a sleeve member provided with a spher1cal bearing intermediate of its ends and having an internal ledge, a thrustbearing supported by said ledge for the suspension of the basket shaft, the lower portion of said sleeve being split and contraclatest? ti'ble, a bushing inserted in the split portion .of said sleeve and forming a lateral bearble engagement with the corresponding coupling member of the basket shaft at substantially the plane of the center of oscillation, substantially as described.

5. In a centrifugal machine the combination of the oscillating sleeve having a spherical bearing intermediate of its upper and lower ends, a thrust bearing formed inside the sleeve intermediate of its ends, a rotary basket-carrying shaft mounted onsaid thrust bearing, and an overhead motor shaft coaxial with said basket shaft, and a a demountable shaft section detachably secured to the lower end of the motor shaft and extending downwardly into said sleeve and having a flexible coupling connection for'driving said basket shaft, substantially as described.

6. A motor' driven centrifugal embracing in combination a socketed hanger, an oscillatory sleeve centrally mounted therein, thrust bearings and lateral bearings formed in said sleeve, a rotary basket shaft supported by said bearings, an overhead driving motor the shaft of which is flexibly connected with said basket shaft, a centralizing supporting frame for supporting the motor and registering shoulders formed respectively upon the motor-supporting frame and the basket shaft hanger concentric with the axis of the motor-shaft to secure. erfect am'al alinement between the motor s aft and the basket shaft, substantially as described.

7 A motor driven centrifugal embracing. in its construction a motor-supporting frame, a sogjeted hanger secured thereto, concentric ide rings for securing the proper registering between the motor-support and the hanger, a rotary oscillatory basket shaft suspended centrally inside said hanger, a motor shaft extending downward centrally of the motor frame in alinement with said basket shaft and connected flexibly with said basket shaft by a driving coupling.

8. In a centrifugal machine the combination of an oscillatory rotary basket-supporting shaft suspended at its upper end to permit gyration and rotation, a rigid non-oscillatory rotary driving shaft mounted above said basket shaft and in alinement therewith, the adjacent ends of the said shafts being coupled together at the center of oscillation of the basket shaft by coupling means comprising a series of interlocking oppositely projecting sector-shaped teeth, substantially as described.

In witness whereof, I have subscribed the above specification.

ELI W. PHILLIPS.

In the presence of Gnonen A. ROCKWELL GEo. N. GODDARD. 

